//------------------------------// // seventeen. he. relationships. // Story: he. she. we. // by Shinzakura //------------------------------// It’s been a week since she got back from Canada, and we’ve settled into our normal life once more. From the moment she got home last week until about a couple of hours before dawn, we were…well, let’s just say that we were reminding ourselves why we’re a couple, and that’s the fun part. It really wasn’t much; after travelling, we just stayed home, settling into our normal lives and letting our world settle back to normal. Unfortunately, we can’t let everything go forever, like that letter that the HIVE sent us. And since we’re eating breakfast this morning, we finally decide to talk about it. Holding that letter in her magic field, she says to me, “The Chairwoman of the HIVE will be attending Pacific War, because she wants to speak to me about something.” She levitates her spoon of oatmeal up to her muzzle, the utensil just floating there before her mouth. “And no, I have no idea what they want to talk to me about.” “It’s Molloy, right? That fucking greaseball, I swear….” Man has rubbed me wrong since Day One and that situation has never improved. “No, it’s not about Molloy; from speaking to the head of their Toronto office, I get the feeling he’s generally not popular with the organization.” Her wings twitch unevenly and I know that’s body language for the fact that she likes him just about as much as I do – which is to say, not at all. “Who knows? Maybe they want to offer me the position.” I look at her and I can’t help but grin at the silliness of that. “Seriously? The fox has been hired as security for the henhouse?” “Look, I can’t do what I want to do forever. I love my career, and I am hella good at it, love, but just as you’re getting older, so do I have to pretend to be. In the women’s circuit, I’m already considered near retirement age. Granted, the men’s circuit is viable until they’re in their forties, so there’s some sexism involved, but sadly, streamers are okay with gray hair on guys but don’t like watching a hot young thing become a not-so-hot, not-so-young thing.” “Yeah, but weren’t you telling me about Senior Critizen?” I still laugh at that. Senior Critizen is a woman in her sixties and active on the FPS circuit. She’s known for bringing cookies to matches and then complimenting her opponents as if they were her grandkids before utterly destroying them. “Yeah, well, she’s a rarity,” she tells me. “Senior players are known for being still damn good despite being at an age where arthritis should be a bigger issue than their APM counts. I mean look at Grandpa Crankypants. Man shows up with walker, but it’s all fake, just to mess with his opponents. He then steps into PVP and destroys anything in his path. He’s even beaten me in an unofficial match.” “You?” “Yeah.” Despite her black fur, I can see the blush. “I thought he was the genuine deal, so I went easy on him. It wasn’t after until I checked the APM stats that I found out he’s got numbers on par with someone a third his age. Next time we meet, I am not giving him any quarter, I promise you that.” She stuffs that spoon of oatmeal in her mouth and the pout on her face looks absolutely adorable. Finally, we finish our food and I get up. “So what’s your plans for today?” “I have to go to Renaissance Studios and talk with them about their new looter-shooter. Supposedly they want to develop a Destiny killer, but I don’t see that happening.” I’ve played that game before. FPSes aren’t my thing, but Moon wanted a fireteam mate, so I learned how to use a Titan. Name of the game still freaks me out for obvious reasons, even though I know it’s not related to my personal problems. “Oh? Why not?” “Between Borderlands, The Division, and Warframe the field is already crowding,” she says in that authoritative tone of hers. “Still, I did talk with BurnStrike—” “Who?” “BurnStrike – that’s Ben Sandoval, CEO of Renaissance. He’s a former stick mover like me, so I guess I owe him the professional courtesy of heading over there and telling him it isn’t going to work in the nicest ways I know how.” She then smiles. “What about you?” I try not to think about what my plans are today, because I really don’t know if our telepathy lets her skim stuff off my mind. I know she wouldn’t, but I’m more concerned about giving things away. “I have to read over the new submission by the new writers Cherry hired last week. Maureen is formerly from Ars, but I wasn’t too impressed by her articles there. Maybe they hamstrung her, or maybe she’s not as hot on the topics she’s covered. And as for Waleed, he comes from Al-Jazeera America; he covered tech there, but that was more of the on-screen stuff, which tends to not be as hard-hitting as the written word, in my opinion. Still, from what I know of him, he’s solid in knowledge.” “So, fun day of editing, I take it?” “Yeah. Besides, it’s either that or I take Cherry’s place at Southern Connection. And between you and me, I really don’t want to fly down to Australia, and we’ve already spent too long apart.” “Yes, that we have,” she tells me. A pause. “Well, I don’t have to be in Whittier until three, so let’s digest and then we can work off the calories.” “You’re insatiable, you know that?” “Oh, you like it when I do that thing with my wings, and you know it,” she gently accuses me. No comment. After more of what we do that comes naturally, she changes to her human form, showers, debates wanting to do it in the shower, then decides she needs to get ready and heads out at about two so that she’s not late. Which, of course, leaves me at home to do my thing. I probably should’ve gone with her to see if I could get an interview with a couple of folks there, but given that Renaissance already gave an exposé to PC Gamer last month I suspect they won’t be talking to the press at all until things on their game are a little more set. I go sit down at my computer and download the articles. Looks like Ars put Maureen in the wrong kinds of spots; this article on JPL is excellent and I’m going to recommend we have her cover the space and science stuff more than home technology front she used to – she seems to know her stuff. Meanwhile, Waleed’s clearly got some knowledge as expected, but this is some seriously sad CNN website crap. I’m going to need him to buckle down more, or maybe even suggest to Cherry that we start a media section and make him the editor. I mean, he’s got the knowledge, but if writing is not his forte, that happens. I give the go-ahead and hammer out a quick email to Cherry, when my phone goes off. I look at the number, but it doesn’t look familiar. “Yeah, this is North Shores,” I answer. “So I got volunteered to do this, since your kid sister gave me a guilt trip.” I sigh. “Oh, hi, Arturia,” I tell her. “How’d you get my phone number?” “I’m Moon’s friend and bodyguard – did you really need to ask something that stupid?” “Yeah, good to hear from you as well,” I tell her. “So, seriously, why’d you call?” “Like I said, Katie gave me a guilt trip into going with you on your little misadventure today. I suspect that she wants to keep things a secret and since I’m better at that, she gave me grief. What time should I meet you at your place?” Oh, that. Great – wasn’t expecting her of all people. Not that I have too much of a problem with Arturia, but out of all of Moon’s friends, she’s…well, the most out there of them, if you get my point. “Moon has an appointment at three, so she should be leaving soon. Meet here about, say, 2:30?” “Works for me; I’ll see you then.” I hang up just as I feel a pair of arms wrap around my shoulders a second later. “You sure you don’t want me to cancel this?” I hear Moon say. “I mean, I can probably come up with some reason why I can’t make it, if you want.” I lean back into the chair, smiling. “As much as I would want to, you made a promise to this Sandoval guy, and I have a lot more of the paperwork to do here as EIC.” I quickly go over my quick notes on both of the writers, but I leave out that I’ve already made up my mind. Hopefully Moon will get the hint that there’s still more to go on with these two. “Well, I promise I won’t be gone too long,” she tells me, kissing the top of my head. “Take as long as you need,” I assure her. “All of this could take a while, plus I want to run an idea or two past Cherry, so I could easily be burning some hours tonight.” “Okay, just as long as you make time for me,” she says and I can practically hear the pout in her voice. “Because I’m just a poor young thing who can’t do anything without her boyfriend.” “Says the immortal all-powerful alien goddess who decided to change forms and live as a twenty-something woman just for my sake?” She hugs me tighter. “Everyone’s gotta have a hobby, dear. Anyway, I’ll see you tonight.” I busy myself with more of the work-related stuff while waiting for Arturia to show up. And thirty minutes later, I’m off towards my destination, with Moon in the car right next to me Only she’s really not right next to me, per se. “Is this the only way I’m going to get you to sleep with me?” Arturia teases me in Moon’s voice. “Because if so, I should let you know this is somewhat weirding me out.” “Ha, ha,” I droll. “Look, if I’m going to do this right, I need Moon’s measurements, which means I need her and a surprise is not a surprise if I have her along, you know? So it was you or Katie as the next best thing, and like you said, she insisted that she can’t keep a secret, so….” “Yes, because I can make myself a copypasta of her,” she says, this time in her voice, and while I know it’s her it’s still weird seeing the love of my life speaking with the voice of one of her friends. “Still, it just feels…wrong.” “Yeah, well, things will get even more wrong if we have to run into anyone either Moon or I know,” I remind her. “So let’s just stick with the plan, okay?” I see her shift back to her normal form and frown. “It would be nice if you tell me what the plan is, North.” “You’ll see,” I tell her. Getting off the freeway, we finally arrive at South Coast Plaza. Fortunately, I’ve already arranged things somewhat with the proprietor of the store. “Does Moon suspect?” Arturia asks. “I hope not; I’ve been very careful,” I admit, “and to be honest, I really don’t know what her reaction will be regardless.” The truth is, I don’t. I’ve done this once before and though it went well at the beginning…. No. Not going to focus on that, not at all. Rachel and I will always have our time together and I will always love her, but I can’t dwell on the demons of the past or that’ll let Russell win. And I value my love for both Moon and Rachel to ever let that bastard dominate my life while he’s sitting in San Quentin. Parking the car over by Saks, we head in and Arturia starts naming her price for her silence, which I guess I’m okay with. I have plenty of disposable funds, and I figured that if it had been Katie that was here, she’d probably do the same thing. Besides, Arturia’s laid off her flirtstorm so far, so I suppose I’m in the clear somewhat. Finally, we walk into South Coast Jewels, and the woman at the counter looks up at me with a smile on her face. “Hey, North, glad you arrived!” “Thanks, Michaela,” I tell her. “Busy day today?” “Not really, but I really didn’t feel like doing inventory today,” she tells me before looking over at Arturia, who’s switched back to Moon’s form. “This the lucky girl? Thought you wanted to keep it a secret.” “Twin sister,” Arturia says smoothly, and I’m going to go with that. “I work down the road and when North told me what he’s planning, I offered to be the guinea pig. Anything for my big sis.” “That’s sweet,” Michaela says before breaking out a series of rings. “Okay, these are the test bands,” she tells us. “Please try them on and let me know which size is the one that works.” She then grabs a laptop and slid it over to me. “North, these are the prototype designs I’ve been drawing on CAD. Normally what you want would be serious cost, but I already owe you and hey, I’m a sucker for happy endings in any case.” “You don’t owe me anything, Michaela, really. If anything, I owe—” She shakes her head at me in that let me finish way, which means that I probably should. “Those earrings I made from that fire ruby got me West Coast Jeweler of the Year, as well as nominated for the American Jeweler Awards. Trust me, that’s the kind of thing that brings in beaucoup business and I wouldn’t have anything at all if it wasn’t for you. So whether you can afford it or not, I’m just charging you for cost and materials, got that?” “Michaela….” “No, I’m insisting. This is the least I can do, and I want to make your day special.” “Fine, fine, I won’t argue.” Mom didn’t raise an idiot. Well, she did, but I’m getting better about it, really. “Well, if you can stick around for a few hours, I can do up a quick 3D printing. Won’t look exactly like it for obvious reasons, but a plastic prototype will give you a generally good idea of whether this is a go or not, or if you want to change your design a little.” I look at Arturia. “You okay with that?” She gives me a smile, though I can see in her eyes that it’s the last thing she wants to do. “Sure, anything for Moon,” she tells me in a voice that sounds a bit close to doth-protest-too-much. “I’ll make it up to you,” I promise. “I know you will,” she says to me, and I immediately begin wondering how expensive this trip is going to be. Thirty minutes after we’re done with Michaela, we’re wandering around the mall and she’s got the look of a predator about her as she window shops. Funny, I never really pegged her for a fashionista. She’s hanging onto my arm, and even though she’s still in Moon’s form rather than her own, I realize I can tell the difference between the two. Her mannerisms and the like are completely different and I remark so. “Changelings are good enough at mimicry that given enough time, I probably could imitate her to the point where you might have a hard time telling us apart,” she tells me, “but those of us with the talent for shapeshifting are required to abide by a Code of Ethics. After all, if we can do it to people, others can potentially do it to us.” “Really?” That’s interesting. She nods and gives me a look. “The most infamous case was one from thirty years ago. A guy with the ability was shifting around, pretending to be various women’s husbands and significant others, getting a lot of them pregnant. So when all these women were giving birth to children that didn’t look anything like the fathers – even when we shift, our genetic makeup doesn’t magically become a copy of the target – so HIVE started to look into it. We caught the guy and found out that he was lashing out in a temper tantrum because another changeling – a woman, no less – seduced his wife by having an affair with her…as a man.” “What?” “It happens.” She looks around and when she’s sure that she doesn’t a camera or others, for a second, she flickers her body and I swear I see an identical copy of myself. “It’s uncomfortable, especially if you’re from the other gender, but we can do it. In any case, the HIVE has placed the guy in our confinement for a couple of decades, since it would be very hard for the authorities to pin it all on him. As for the women who bore his kids, well, the HIVE had to get involved to some degree or other and while I’m glad to say that in that case although many of them were more than happy to claim the child as theirs, for those that didn’t, HIVE arranged for a payment to the mother to help get them on better footing, with occasional monitoring to make sure whether or not the talent rings true.” “And what about the woman that started all of this?” “She spent five years in our women’s confinement center for rape and then we had our best magic users place a transhib on her.” I look at her weirdly and she laughs. “Sorry, term of art. Transhib is short for transformation inhibitor. It’s a spell that essentially locks them into their base form forever. Since shifting is genetic, and you can’t get rid of that unless you kill the person, HIVE just uses a transhib on them to prevent them from doing so. The more you try to use your ability, the more it feels like every cell in your body is being set on fire via nuclear weapons. It’s supposed to be painful, because to us, stealing someone’s identity is a serious matter.” I pause at that. Given what Moon told me about her trip to Canada and what had happened there, even if that Vandervort guy had lost it, he’d imitated several people, his sister included, for his ends. Granted, there were more things than just that, but it made me worry about if any changeling would ever try to imitate me. And then I thought about Katie and what I asked her earlier: as a queen, using her abilities to imitate Moon probably made her very uncomfortable. Arturia, still in Moon’s form, gives me a look that acknowledges I understand. “I’m sorry,” I tell her. “I didn’t realize—” “Of course you didn’t. You’re a normal human, and you’ve no idea what it’s like to have this ability,” she tells me. “Besides, what I’m doing is within the Code of Ethics, and it’s for my boss, anyway, so I’m in the clear.” I can see her frown slightly as she adds, “But…this?” she tells me, gesturing to herself as Moon. “It’s a lie. I would want the guy I was attracted to get to know me for me. Not to fall for me because I looked like someone else, you know?” She looks at me, and I have to wonder: was that an explanation, or a come on? Before I can even answer that, she leans towards me and I think I’m about to go into panic mode. “North! North Shores!” I turn towards the direction of the voice calling out to me. “Hey, you holding out on me, man?” I look in surprise, not believing who I’m seeing. “Jake?” “Fuck yeah, man! ‘Bout time you recognized, dude!” I grin; Jacob Lopez is my best friend; we were thick as thieves growing up, and keep in touch often. But why’s he here? He moved to London two years ago to study neurosurgery under some vaunted British doctor or some shit like that. Guy’s last name was probably Who or something. “Dude, what are you doing back here in LA? Didn’t you have that thing going on over in London?” “Oh, the neurosurgery thing? Yeah, finished up with that,” he tells me with a grin. “Seriously?” “I’m a quick study, you know that. Seriously, though, got through with it zero problem. But things got boring with the chicks over there, so I decided to come back home to Cali where things are smoking!” I just give him a skeptical look, though I’m glad to see him. “So how many wanted to get serious?” I ask him. “What, me? Serious? Dude, that’s your department. I just take care of the T&A!” Have I mentioned Jake is an asshole? Yeah, he really is. Don’t get me wrong, he’s my best friend, but he’s always been a womanizer. The only girls that are off-limits to him are Carrie and Katie and only because they weren’t of age; I can guarantee he’d try something now. He then looks at Arturia and I can already see that look in his eyes. “So, who’s the fine lady here?” he asks, and without even bothering to inquire he’s already taking her hand and kissing it. “So, why are you with this guy and what’s it going to take to get you to switch to me?” Great, I forgot – he doesn’t really consider many people off-limits. Why am I friends with this guy again? “Dude, that’s my girl. Moon, this is Jake Lopez, my best friend. Jake, this is Moon de Lune, my girlfriend.” “Soon to be mine,” he said, giving her a wolfish smile. I look and see the brief look of worry in Arturia’s eyes and I wonder if things are about to go south very, very fast. Fortunately, she quickly withdraws her hand and says in her best “Moon is annoyed” voice, “Charmed, I’m sure.” She then looks at me. “Sweetheart, I’m sure you haven’t seen your friend in a while, so I’m sure you want to spend some time with him,” she says. “Besides, I need to meet Katie and Pumpkin on the other side of the mall.” “Hey, more girls? Sounds like a plan for me,” he says. Got to prevent this from making things worse. “No you don’t, Cassanova,” I tell him in my most affable voice. “Moon, you go off and have fun with your friends. I should be home tonight and we can trade war stories.” Arturia giggles; that’s something Moon usually doesn’t do. She then smiles and says to me, “Don’t do anything that would break my heart, okay?” Then she kisses me. Long and deep. I’m…not sure how to react to this. Clearly, Arturia knows how to kiss. Or maybe it’s because I’m kissing my dearest love in a sense. Moon, I mean. I have no idea how I’m going to explain this to her, because I guarantee she will find out. As we kiss, I can see Jake turn away for a sec, which makes me wonder, because that’s just not his style. As he does, Arturia breaks the kiss and whispers, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Moon – but she’ll probably find out anyway.” Yeah, no kidding. Kissing me once more, she then looks at Jake and says, “Try to make sure he makes it home in once piece, okay?” Jake looks at her and grins. “No promises – but if I don’t, can I take his place?” “Not in your wildest dreams, hotshot,” she tells him, waves to me, then walks off. While I’m already mentally trying to figure out how I’m going to make this up to my girl, Jake snakes his arm around my shoulder. “Dude, she’s hot. She got a twin sister or something?” Oh, you have no idea. But I look at him and say, “How long have you been back and when were you going to tell me?” “Hey, I just got back yesterday, okay? Plus, I left you messages and a couple of emails, but I guess you were too busy in Bang City to notice. So I called your brother and that’s when he told me about your hot new squeeze.” He looks at me with this shit-eating grin and adds, “So, this Moon chick – she’s gotta last all night if you turned down some hot freak like the girl your brother was telling me about.” Man, I hate it when he constantly grins. Looks like a doped-up jackal, I swear. “Look, if you want Destiny’s phone number and shit, she’s all you,” I tell him. “Trust me, you’d be taking that problem off my hands.” “Shit – dude, marriage made you soft! You got Moon and you got Destiny? You should put them together for a little Menage-a-three! Who knows? They might just like it.” He then straightens up and said, “But first things first. Let’s go drinking, okay?” “Um…sure.” I can deal with it since it’s been a while since I last saw him, right? I’m sure Moon will understand. I wake up the next morning and my head is swimming like it was slammed several times against a locker. I vaguely recall Jake and I going drinking for a bit at Balboa Island and— “Are you feeling okay?” I turn and look at Moon, who’s sitting in her alicorn form, laying down on the bed next to me. She’s got a concerned look on her face, but her wing pinions are ruffled in that way that tells me she’s both worried and irritated at the same time. I am soooooooo doomed. “So,” she begins, “you drank quite a bit, especially with your friend.” I look at her bleary-eyed, trying to figure out exactly what the hell happened last night. Last I recall, I went drinking with Jake to welcome him back and…. “You know, if you were going to be out all night, you could have called me,” she tells me in a restrained voice. “I was worried about you when I got home and you weren’t here. Fortunately, Arturia called me and said she ran into you down at South Coast.” I try to keep a straight face, but right now I want to throw up and then die. Painfully. I feel her horn against my head, and then a flush of something roil through me. “It’s hard to talk to you when you’re drunk off your ass,” she told me, looking at me with those gorgeous serpentine eyes of hers. “I bet that comes in handy,” I tell her as I feel my hangover vanish. She could probably bottle that and make a fortune off that. “I’m tempted to restore your hangover,” she tells me as she swats me with her wing. “I was worried about you, you know that?” “Sorry; I wasn’t thinking,” I admit. “Hadn’t seen Jake in ages, and he is my best friend.” “Yes. Well, he’s crashed in the guest room right now – I have him under a deep sleeping spell.” “You brought him here and you’re in your normal form?” I ask her. “Well, somepony had to bring you home from the bar after it closed,” she reminded me, “and I have no idea where he lives. So, you’re going to straighten this out while I go pretend to be your devastatingly gorgeous and understanding live-in girlfriend, okay?” “Um, sure,” I say as I get out of bed. “After all, he’s already seen us kiss, right?” she says, and I immediately freeze up, then look at her in shock. She smiles and says, “Yes, Arturia told me about that, too.” I am soooooooooo dead. “Yes, you are, but I’ll forgive you eventually,” she tells me as a wide grin comes over her muzzle. “Now go solve our little problem.” Jake looks at her and says, “Hot as hell, and can cook. What can I do to get you to dump this loser and come my way?” She gives him a smile and says, “Sorry, I already have him bedtrained.” “I bet I can be better,” he says to her and honestly I have no idea if he’s joking or not. “I’ll take my chances,” she says, snuggling closer to me, reminding me why I’m the luckiest guy in the world. “Yeah, well, can’t say I won’t try my hardest. I like a challenge,” he says and gives that grin that I swear I want to punch. Yeah, my best friend, folks – what can you do, right? I put an arm around her waist and hold her body closer to mine. “Well, the way I figure it, Jake, you can try all you want…but I hit the jackpot. I’m absolutely not letting Moon go.” Though I can’t see her face at the moment, I know she’s smiling and sure enough, a second later I feel the touch of lips against my cheek, letting me know I did good. “Yeah, lucky you. I’m jealous as hell, you know that?” That wasn’t an answer I expected from him. “You?” He nods. “First, you find the perfect girl in Rachel. I swear, when I saw her, I wanted her so bad, but clearly she only had eyes for you. And now it’s happening all over again.” Surprisingly, he glared at me. “At some point, I swear, I’m going to end up with the perfect girl, not you, homie.” “Is that a challenge?” I ask him lightly. “Yeah. Yeah, sure, why not?” He looks at Moon. “May as well prepare to be mine, girl.” She looks at him evenly. “You know the way out,” is all she tells him. He catches a cab back to where he’s staying at. He tells me there’s no hard feelings, and that he’s sure that it’ll all straighten out. But I know Jake well enough to know that when he has his mind set on things, he’s not going to back down until some other girl catches his eye or Moon and I get married. That’s okay, I know she’s not going anywhere…and I’m already working on that latter part, so no worries there. “I cannot believe the nerve of that man!” As I close the door, I turn to see Moon’s eyes blazing like twin stars of anger. She’s still human, but I suspect that’s more because she’s a little too angry to change right now. “Sweetie, I never doubted you for a moment. That’s why I called his bluff.” She crosses her arms and I wonder if I’m in trouble again. “I am not a thing to be bartered, North! I am a goddess and a princess and—” “Retired goddess and princess, as I recall,” I tell her as I lean forward and kiss her as I pull her closer. “And you mean more to me than either of those.” She sighs and melts into my arms and apparently all is forgiven, at least for now. “That’s an answer I can accept,” she says to me with a smile. Glad to know I still got it.